Cruise internet guides
Prices last confirmed
Short answer
Getting online at sea costs anywhere from nothing to about $40 a day, depending on which of four options is used. These guides price each one: what every cruise line charges for its Wi-Fi packages, what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile charge once a ship leaves port, which two maritime networks every cruise eSIM resells, and how the four options compare over a seven-night sailing.
The guides
Every cruise eSIM resells one of two maritime networks: Cellular at Sea or Telenor Maritime. Which providers ride which, and why it decides your ship.
AT&T and Verizon both charge $20 a day at sea. T-Mobile sells no cruise pass at all. What each really costs for a week, and the cheaper alternative.
What every cruise line charges for Wi-Fi packages per device per day, what a week costs at one, two and four devices, and which lines include it in the fare.
Four ways to get online at sea, what each costs for a week, and which to pick for your itinerary. Plus the free options most passengers never find.
Setting up and using GigSky
Hands-on guides for the provider most cruise passengers end up buying: what to do before you sail, how the free trial works, and which apps run outside your allowance.
Install, test and activate a GigSky cruise eSIM without losing a day to troubleshooting: what to do at home, at the terminal, and once you sail.
GigSky gives 100 MB free with no card. What it covers at sea, how long it realistically lasts, and when upgrading is actually worth it.
WhatsApp, iMessage, Maps and Uber run without consuming your GigSky allowance. What is included, what is not, and how to size a plan around it.
Which guide answers your question
| The question | Guide | The short answer |
|---|---|---|
| What does the ship charge for Wi-Fi? | Cruise Wi-Fi prices | A median of $24.99 per device per day across 10 lines, billed per device rather than per cabin. |
| What will a week cost for two people? | Cruise Wi-Fi prices | About $349.86 on the ship’s package at the median rate, before any pre-sailing discount. |
| Can I use my own phone plan instead? | Carrier cruise plans | AT&T and Verizon sell $20-a-day cruise passes. T-Mobile sells no cruise pass at all. |
| Why do cruise phone bills come back so high? | Carrier cruise plans | Background data attaches to the ship’s network on its own and is metered per megabyte without a pass. |
| Which eSIMs actually work at sea? | The two maritime networks | Only plans reselling Cellular at Sea or Telenor Maritime. Coverage is decided by the ship, not the brand. |
| Is my ship on the network my plan uses? | The two maritime networks | Check the vessel by name on the provider’s own list. Single fleets span both networks. |
| What are the options, priced side by side? | How to get online at sea | Ship package, maritime eSIM, carrier day pass and a regional eSIM for ports, each costed over seven nights. |
| What has to be done before boarding? | How to get online at sea | Buy and install any eSIM on home Wi-Fi, then switch cellular data off on the home line before sailing. |
Where the figures come from
Every cruise-line Wi-Fi price in these guides is read from the catalogue as the page loads, so the tables here and the cruise line pages cannot disagree. The same rows publish separately as the Cruise Ship Wi-Fi Price Index, a CC BY 4.0-licensed dataset with collection dates and a per-line breakdown.
Carrier cruise-pass prices cannot be read automatically, because no US carrier publishes a maritime tariff through an API. Those figures are checked by hand against each carrier’s published terms, carry the date they were verified, and are marked as reported rather than published wherever the carrier states no rate. How we test and rank sets out the sourcing rules in full.
Calculators
Estimates how much data a sailing needs from its sea days, port days and the apps in use, from messaging to video calls.
Confirms whether a phone supports eSIM and whether it is carrier-locked, which decides whether any of these plans can be installed at all.